Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Horry County to show spending records

Horry County will be making its spending records a little more accessible to citizens starting Friday.

The county will be joining the ranks of more than a dozen communities across the state in their move for accountability by posting its check register online. Horry County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland said the county's administration has agreed to make the move and will be figuring out a system to post the records weekly on the county's Web site. Currently the register is available to anyone who wants to see it, but they have to be viewed in person at the county's administration building in Conway.

"There is a big push toward openness in government and transparency. I've always been in favor of that. I'm the one that cut out the regular lengthy executive sessions from our council meetings," Gilland said. "We write 13,000 checks a year, so it won't be a small thing. The online statements will come directly from our checkbooks from every department. It will all go online and should be pretty easy to read."

Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach and Georgetown began posting their check registers online earlier this year, and are part of what will be 16 communities statewide that have voluntarily begun posting them. The S.C. State Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom has been pushing communities to participate in the accountability measure. Eckstrom made the move to publish the check registers from every state agency since March 2008.

"Taxpayers have a right to see how their tax dollars are spent. Public officials are also more accountable when their spending is out in the open. You're going to think twice if that expenditure is out there for everyone to see," said R.J. Shealy, spokesman for the comptroller general's office. "We're making a lot of headway, and I think these communities will see that they won't be facing the kinds of tough questions they're anticipating from being open about their spending. For a lot of people, just knowing that municipalities are willing to put the information out there is comforting."

Shealy said the move will make Horry County the second largest local government in the state to post its register online, and with the cities who have previously joined the effort, the area will become a leader in the state, he said. The register information will be similar to the Myrtle Beach online register and will include the check numbers, amounts, who they were written to and what was procured.

Gilland said Eckstrom has called various representatives of the county to urge the online record keeping several times, but she and others were concerned that the effort would put a burden on an already stretched county staff.

"My biggest concern was not giving people too much extra work," Gilland said. "In the end, the real cost to us to do this was in manpower to figure out and write the program. We have one of the best county [Information Technology] departments in the country and thanks to their work; the process won't be burdensome at all."